World War I and Later
By the time of the First World War, many of the Endicott and Taft era forts had become obsolete due to the increased range and accuracy of naval weaponry and the advent of aircraft. In the 1920s and 1930s, most U.S. coast defense facilities were put on "maintenance" status, a type of "mothballing." In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a new program of construction added huge 16-inch gun batteries, as well as rapid-firing 6-inch and 90 mm guns guns (for use against motor torpedo boats) to many harbors' defenses, and large fields of submarine mines were still being deployed as well. But as it became clearer that the U.S. was unlikely to face seaborne attack, these defenses were largely discontinued (by 1945), and were decommissioned altogether after 1946.
Read more about this topic: Board Of Fortifications
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“I have everything in the world that is necessary to happiness, good faith, good friends and all the work I can possibly do. I think God’s greatest blessing to the human race was when He sent man forth into the world to earn his bread by the sweat of his face. I believe in toil, in the dignity of labor, but I also believe in adequate compensation for that toil.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)
“The War was decided in the first twenty days of fighting, and all that happened afterwards consisted in battles which, however formidable and devastating, were but desperate and vain appeals against the decision of Fate.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)